Shortly before Wednesday night’s CNN/YouTube Republican debate, host Anderson Cooper defended the innovative format in which “ordinary citizens” were invited to submit their own questions by uploading videos to the Internet.
“Obviously people are cautious about any type of new technology,” Cooper told The Politico. “But this is not that new. This whole Internet thing has been around for a while, if I understand. I think the candidate that rejects it looks out of touch and foolish.”
The day after the debate, it was revealed that at least six of the questioners were Democratic activists rather than typical voters, whose opinions and concerns were supposed to be represented. The question for CNN — which was solely responsible for selecting the questions — is: Who looks foolish now?
In the most telling incident, openly gay retired brigadier general Keith Kerr, who is part of Hillary Clinton’s “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered for Hillary Steering Committee,” was allowed to ask whether the candidates supported the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. After several of the candidates said that they respected Kerr’s service but didn’t believe the military needed to change its policy, CNN host Cooper asked Kerr — who was present in the live audience — whether he’d gotten an answer. He thought he hadn’t. All in all, the episode took nearly five minutes.
Kerr told CNN he had not done work for the Clinton campaign, but he was listed on Clinton’s website as part of the LGBT steering committee. On the website of
Campaigns and Elections magazine, he is listed as one of almost 50 co-chairmen of a group called “Veterans and Military Retirees for Hillary.” He was also on the steering committee of “Veterans for Kerry.”
CNN later issued an apology. “We regret this incident. CNN would not have used the general’s question had we known that he was connected to any presidential candidate,” said David Bohrman, a CNN executive and the producer of the debate. But it wouldn’t have been hard to find out. Has CNN ever heard of Google? (Hint: it’s an Internet search-engine. Another hint: It owns YouTube.) Within minutes of Kerr’s question, a reader e-mailed
National Review Online to inform us of his affiliation. It was the subsequent
NRO “Corner” post
that brought the connection to CNN’s attention.
Other questions came from declared supporters of John Edwards, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, someone working on legislation with a Democratic senator, and a prominent union activist also supporting the Edwards campaign. The conceit of the YouTube debate was that it empowered ordinary citizens, but CNN managed to empower Democratic activists instead — and at a Republican debate!
Overall, even the questions not asked by Democratic activists were embarrassing — vapid, stupid, irrelevant, or all three. The conservative questioners were straight out of liberal caricature. One man who asked about Second Amendment rights ended his video by having someone off camera toss him a (presumably) loaded shotgun; he then pumped it and chambered a round to drive his point home. Another questioner asked whether the candidates believed “every word of this book” — while waving a Bible at the camera. Obviously, this is what CNN thinks conservatives are.
Also worth noting is what questions CNN didn’t ask. There was not a single question about education or health care, for example. But CNN did make sure viewers heard about the Trilateral Commission and a mission to Mars. This passes for editorial judgment?
Republicans were reluctant to participate in last night’s debate, and CNN proved them right. Both they and the viewers had to endure two hours of inanity and stilted questioning. We learned a little something about the candidates in the exchanges Wednesday night, but we learned much more about CNN.
